The present invention relates to an input device for a graphical user interface, and more specifically to a wearable input device.
An input device is a piece of computer hardware equipment used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system such as a computing device. Pointing devices are the most commonly used input devices today. A pointing device is any human interface device that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer.
Discrete input is made by a single input, such as a click, and a continuous input may be made by a moving positional input, such as a cursor movement on a screen in two-dimensions. In the case of pointing devices such as mouse and touchpads, this is usually achieved by detecting movement across a physical surface.
Movements of the pointing device are echoed on the screen by movements of a user interface pointer, creating a simple, intuitive way to navigate a computer's graphical user interface (GUI).
Pointing device input may be direct or indirect. With direct input, the input space coincides with the display space, i.e. pointing is done in the space where visual feedback or the pointer appears, such as touchscreens. The positional information for direct input devices is absolute. In indirect input, such as a mouse or trackpad, the positional information is relative to another surface and the input device may be lifted and repositioned.
Composite input devices, such as joysticks and other gaming devices, include combinations of input devices having more than two different forms of input.
In virtual reality systems, currently user input is provided via hand held or glove-style controllers that use various mechanisms to interpret the user's hand movement and/or gestures. These are generally bulky, expensive and technically complex devices.
The current solutions tend to focus on replicating mainstream (for example, gamepad style) control inputs in a convenient manner, or attempt to provide whole-hand style input measuring positioning and movement of the hand and fingers (for example, in a glove style).